HELP-the chipmonks are killing me !

Hey guys, this past week was space week at a local Elementery School. I had close too 400 kids, split into two groups. The first group was K thru 2nd grade and the other group was 3rd to 5th grade. Myself and a friend had too do two 30 minute talks.
The K thru 2nd talk was a crash and burn, and the 3rd thru 5th was much better performance.
I would rather be shot out of my 16 inch Meade Dob cannon, than go threw that again.
Does anybody have a way or information on how too do talks on these young people, for future reference. Are there books or websites or kind way too put me out of my missery ???
I like outreach with scouts or older groups and smaller groups.
The last point was that , we tried not too, but it seemed like we were talking over the heads of the teacher. 8O 8O 8O
That was very scary......

Thanks a Billion,
Bill

Bill Madewell said:

Hey guys, this past week was space week at a local Elementary School. I had close too 400 kids, split into two groups. The first group was K thru 2nd grade and the other group was 3rd to 5th grade. Myself and a friend had too do two 30 minute talks.
The K thru 2nd talk was a crash and burn, and the 3rd thru 5th was much better performance.
I would rather be shot out of my 16 inch Meade Dob cannon, than go threw that again.
Does anybody have a way or information on how too do talks on these young people, for future reference. Are there books or websites or kind way too put me out of my misery ???
I like outreach with scouts or older groups and smaller groups.
The last point was that , we tried not too, but it seemed like we were talking over the heads of the teacher. 8O 8O 8O
That was very scary......

Thanks a Billion,
Bill

I did a little bit of kindergarten science "parent-helping" when my kids were younger. You possibly crashed and burned because the format was a "talk" Next time, try one of these things;

Read an age group appropriate science or space themed story. It helps if you have a manageable sized group (10 kids or less) and a story with big pictures that you can read upside down so the kids see the pictures. I'm my experience, they love this. They will ask questions that challenge you too... "Why doesn't Earth have rings like Saturn?"

Better yet, with young kids, do a space-themed craft. Maybe split them up into groups to paint Styrofoam balls like the planets, then have them arrange them in a model solar system. Have them put the Sun and Earth 4 feet apart and ask where they think Pluto should go. When they hear that Pluto would be 100 yards away across the parking lot they will have learned something most adults never knew.

I bet if you were talking over the heads of the teachers, you aimed your talk way too high. A better target for really young kids is to pique interest with a fun craft and then the 3 or 4 future astronomers can later flesh out the details in high school and college.

The young ones can really be fun, so I would say, "try again" as soon as possible.

Jim